AWSP Blog

This past Tuesday, a jury in Minnesota found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in George Floyd’s death. This poignant and pivotal moment represents another chapter in our country's dialog on policing and race relations. As educators, we should use it to elevate our conversations on race, on justice and accountability, and on the future of our communities.

Some might say we’ve come a long way as educational organizations, stakeholder groups, schools, districts, and higher education spent the last few years talking about and addressing systems of inequity. That progress is only the tip of the iceberg. We will never be able to rest on this pursuit until access, opportunities, expectations, and outcomes can no longer be predicted by the color of one’s skin. We can’t rest until we’ve equipped new generations and addressed the biases of older generations so there is never another horrific example like George Floyd.

This blog’s title comes from a recent National Geographic article describing the magazine’s investigation into its historical arc-of-reporting on people of color in the U.S. and abroad. The patience and time dedicated by the editor-in-chief to curate and dissect how the magazine treated issues of race is a helpful model for school systems. In order to serve our students and facilitate honest and open dialogue, we too must examine and reconcile with our own long-standing cultural narratives and how certain students are adversely impacted by the educational systems we lead.